FF Legend II - "The Legacy" Remix

[Vyper]

Hi all...

I'm looking for some feedback on my newest attempt at getting onto OCR. This is a remix of the overworld theme from Final Fantasy Legend II for the game boy. The original track is called "The Legacy" and I don't have a name for my remix yet. Suggestions as to the name are appreciated as well as feedback on the track.

As for the actual music, it's orchestral dance that turns into trance and then wavers back and forth. That sounds weird but for some reason it seemed natural while I was making it.

So here's the link: http://www.myotherdrive.com/dyn/file/375.070023.30102009.83676.6a64fi/FFL2_TheLegacy-Remix_8.mp3

Thanks much for the feedback.

- DJ Velly

[rig1015]

Took a listen... it being a FF mix and all.

It was very fun with the rock styled beat.

Artistic Crits:

Your Rock drums, keep the sound(s) of it but chop the pattern/region up a lot here and there to give it a faster rhythmic sound. This way when you shift into your Trance beat (or loop... I couldn't tell) you can have easier feel shifting.

Instrument choices... how synth do you want to be? Right now it sounds MIDI orchestra meets Trance Synths. If you want to keep the instrument synths and patches you have now, work them up more, like maybe add a delay on the clarinet sounding instrument that trills through once the melody picks up. You could also run some of the instruments through distortion plug-ins, like guitar amps, and clip distortion.

Engineering Crits:

Also with the drums, your clipping. You are actually clipping at various moments throughout. If you are doing it for deliberate distortion, cool, but it doesn't sound like you are. Compressors, Limiters, and MBDC plug-ins can help you with that. Sounds like you are hitting your mix bus' limit just a little to hard and your DAW can't quite hang. I would recommend a MBDC (Multi-Band Dynamic Compressor) on your main out-puts to help with those loud moments. Soft settings, we just want to stop the clipping, not make it loud as hell (yet).

Turn your speakers way down and listen to your mix again (don't turn down your main outs just your speakers) see if anything stands out too much to you. Some times we think something needs to be at -3dB do be heard in the mix but it will have the same effect at -9dB and this will free up some harmonic space in the mix thus making it cleaner.

After turning the bulk of your mix down try going back and seeing what levels can come back up, meaning what do you want to have stand out.

Alright I've crit'd your ear off but it could be a fun mix and with enough work it could be a really awesome track.

Ideas for title... ??? Iron it out more and see what starts to happen.

Hope it helps.

[Escariot]

Once-through thoughts. I agree that some of the instrumentation/feel changes are natural, but a couple of them feel a little bit forced. I'm not familiar with the source, so it sounds a bit Star Fox-y to me, but I'll live.

0:00 - 0:15 - The synth sounds generic, and has absolutely no change to the quality of sound. Makes it boring by 0:09

0:15 - 0:30 - Decent straight rock feel. The panning on the perc is a bit distracting to me with my setup.

0:17 - Oboe/Clarinet sounds a bit too synthy.

0:28 - The duet run gets lost.

0:29 - Not sure if I like the sudden switch to the swing feel, nor am I sure if I like the roundness of the swing feel. Also, the underlying pluck sound isn't so much providing texture as it is providing muddiness. Clean up the 'verb on it.

0:42 - When the high note is reached, it sounds just like a synth. Look into a better sample, and maybe humanize the lines a bit.

0:44 - Somewhere in here, the percussion makes an awkward back to a straight feel, then back again. This kind of thing is really distracting.

0:49 - Ew. Rim click.

1:04 - Same feel-change comments here, though I like the synth intrusion.

1:11 - Sudden change to the straight feel of the electronica section, with the same generic synth. Not impressed.

1:25 - Drum loop + synth.

1:27 - swing-a swing-a swing-a STRAIGHT!

1:29 - Same drum loop + synth.

1:31 - RIM CLICKS ARE A NO-NO! Not right here.

1:33 - More of the synth. Look into more variety of sound for your different synths.

1:39 - This constant feel change was driving me absolutely crazy, so I went and checked the source. It's all done straight, minus two lines in the melody. I don't think it sounds bad with a swing feel, but there needs to be some semblance of consistency.

1:54 - I was hoping you'd surprise me a change the synth up a bit.

2:08 - Sounds like you layered an additional drumloop on top of your untz. Clean it up a bit.

2:26 - The drum lead-in is awkward. This happens earlier in the tune. (at 0:02, and maybe most importantly 0:59)

I spent more time listening to this to pick up all of the timestamps of everything I listed. You have some good ideas, but you can't just paste them all together. Work on cleaning up the transitions, find another synth (to supplement the one you have), and make the orchestral sounds a bit more realistic.

I look forward to a future WIP